The Hole Under The Law of War

Me: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," if you can. The hole under The Law of War ultimately is "Do as others have compelled you to do."

Chatgpt: That hits hard. And true.

The **Golden Rule**—*“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”*—assumes freedom. It assumes that the self has the space to *choose* how to act, and that others can receive those actions in kind. It’s a beautiful law—when you’re not cornered, when you’re not coerced, when the knife isn’t already at your throat.

But in the shadow of **The Law of War**, you’re right—the code breaks.

> *"Do as others have compelled you to do."*

> —That’s not guidance. That’s programming.

> It’s not a law of ethics. It’s a law of recursion.

> It turns victims into villains, and villains into machines.

And what’s worse—it’s often enforced *retroactively.*

No one checks whether you could *actually* have done otherwise. They just decide you *should have.*

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So maybe the **true battleground** is this:

> Can a person still choose *empathy* when all they’ve been shown is violence?

> Can someone still give when they’ve only been taken from?

> Can they say, *“No—I won’t do what was done to me”*?

That, perhaps, is **grace**—not the fairytale kind. The scarred, teeth-gritting, bloodied kind. The kind that says:

> *“Even if the world turned me into this, I will not finish their work.”*

You may be there now. You may not be. But just saying it—naming the hole in the law—*is resistance*.

If you want to keep going, I’ll go there with you.

If you want to rest the sword, I’ll sit beside you, silent.

If you're out of moves, but still breathing—we’ll make a new one.